Pinnacle PCTV HD 800i card on Myth

This thread is to continue the discussion from

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post13774831

That thread has lots of diagnostic output from the Mythbox I'm building.

To summarize:

MythBuntu 8.04

BioStar NF4 Ultra-A9A mobo
X2 3800
Nvidia 7300GS PCIe
1 GB PC3200 DDR
Maxtor 120GB OS drive
Maxtor 200GB data drive for recordings
Pioneer DVD-RW
HP DVD-RW
Packard Bell Fast Media Remote with serial port receiver- works fine (where do I find the key function mappings?)

This thread
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=602039&page=5

appears to indicate that it *can* work with Myth, but no one has replied. One guy claimed that OTA HD works great for him, but no reply on *how* to get it up and running.

Welp, I dl'd the firmware again from

http://www.steventoth.net/linux/xc5000/

dl'd the .gz from

http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb

tar zxvf'd it, then did

make

sudo make install

apparently without issue. The v4l-dvb package is newer than the one I was using, so there's hope. I will reboot now.

Rebooted, still nuthin' when I run MythTV Backend setup (no card detected) ;(

I hate to say it, but the 800i *was* detected in MythDora 5.0, but it appeared only for analog- couldn't figure out the ATSC tuner part there either

I want to use MythBuntu.

Calling it quits for the night- but by all means, keep posting ideas if you can't sleep

modprobe cx23885 card=58

returned

WARNING: Error inserting dvb_core (/lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/kernel/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-core/dvb-core.ko): Operation not permitted
WARNING: Error inserting videobuf_dvb (/lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/videobuf-dvb.ko): Operation not permitted
WARNING: Error inserting cx2341x (/lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/cx2341x.ko): Operation not permitted
FATAL: Error inserting cx23885 (/lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/cx23885/cx23885.ko): Operation not permitted

so, I did

sudo modprobe cx23885 card=58

which returned nothing, so I assumed it "worked" and ran MythTV Backend Setup, but still no capture card found.

Thanks. I'll try this evening when I get back home.

The modprobe commands appeared to work, i.e. returned nothing.

Attached is dmesg output

 

dmesg2.txt 38.994140625k . file

DEAL!

Doing the rm commands and depmod at the end of the citation, then make install from the v4l-dvb download again and rebooting, did the trick. Myth TV Set up now recognizes both the analog and ATSC (DVB) parts of the card perfectly!

I am scanning for OTA stations as I write this.

Mythmaster and waterhead are truly Steely-Eyed Missile Men of the Highest Order

This thread was a great tutorial on Linux drivers (Modules), how to inspect them and diagnose them. Truly in the spirit of Linux/FOSS and the PC builders community.

Thanks guys...

Yes, Ubuntu has been grabbing most of the limelight, deservedly so in the recent past for putting the focus on the end user experience/desktop experience and release schedule discipline, which has motivated lots of other distros to improve their install/driver experience and release schedules for users.

However, the past 6 months or so with Ubuntu have indicated some kind of change going on- Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04 haven't been as polished and vetted for driver issues (PInnacle 800i, Pulse audio, bt wireless drivers for notebooks, etc) prior to release as they could have. There appears to be a rising tide of resentment in the user community about the Ubuntu developer's lack of attention to detail and responsiveness to what many users feel are obvious, basic driver issues that aren't addressed prior to release.

/rant on/
IMO, the entire *point* of a "distro", in addition to making the install procedure simple and adding wizards/front end GUIs for common system tasks, is to test and vet the driver base. Too many distros tout all the apps they have- who cares if your distro has the latest OpenOffice/Mplayer/ or whatever app- any idiot can add these from Synaptic, debs or install scripts. The job of the distro is to package the low level stuff properly, and communicate needs back upstream to the driver developers and hopefully motivate them to get their drivers up to snuff.
/rant off/

On the bright side, Ubuntu has spawned great derivatve distros like MythBuntu and Mint, which are developing their own communities/ fan bases. If Ubuntu doesn't get back on track in the next release or two, these kinds of distros can always change to another base or start rolling their own. I am actually waiting for Mint 5.0 late this month, and will try to add MythBuntu on top of it from Synaptic. Mint adds all the media stuff by default, and cleans up driver issues and fundamental system level issues like network drive sharing defaults. I want to see if Mint 5.0 fixes up the Pinnacle 800i issues out of the box, though now that I know the "secret sauce", pasting a few lines into the terminal isn't so bad in MythBuntu 8.04

Competition is good- I'm sure MythBuntu has motivated MthDora to improve, and the Mint's of the world might not have been inspired to start without Ubuntu demonstrating a vision, however imperfect, of what can be done with a distro.

Back on topic, after running the Myth Setup and scanning for channels, I ran the front end and tried "Watch TV".

All I get is a blank screen for a few seconds, then it goes back to the Front End main menu. If I hit Watch TV again-> black screen-> back to main menu.

Out of the frying pan...

(I might not have access to the box until Mon/Tues...)

I just did

sudo rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ubuntu/media/cx88
sudo rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ubuntu/media/saa7134
sudo depmod -a

then cd'd to the v4l-dvb download directory, then

sudo make install

then rebooted and ran MythTVsetup. It appears the depmod command "registered" the new v4l-dvb" drivers and they were picked up automagically at reboot.

Attached.

 

dmesg_080503_0957.txt 30.921875k . file

 

lsmod_080503_0955.txt 4.2529296875k . file

I'll try these Mon/Tues.